Historic Earthquakes

Northern Iran
1997 May 10 07:57:29 UTC
Magnitude 7.3

At least 1,567 people killed,
2,300 injured, 50,000 homeless, 10,533 houses destroyed,
5,474 houses damaged and landslides in the Birjand-Qayen
area. Five people killed and some damage in the Herat
area, Afghanistan. Felt in Kerman, Khorasan, Semnan,
Sistan va Baluchestan and Yazd Provinces, Iran. This
earthquake appears to have occurred on a southern splay
of the Ferdows fault. The left-lateral, strike-slip
Ferdows fault was the site of the 1968 Dasht-e-Bayaz
earthquake (magnitude 7.3) which resulted in 12,000-20,000
casualties. The Ferdows fault is north of the Zagros
Mountains (the latter being the northern boundary of the
Arabian plate). Understanding the tectonics of the Ferdows
region is complicated by indistinct boundaries of the
several microplates at that collision zone.